Aleksandr Usyk and Murat Gassiev entertained a big crowd at Tuesday’s public workout in Moscow.
Usyk, however, did surprisingly not do any of the usual skipping, shadow boxing or pad work, but instead waved and bowed in front of the hundreds of fans at the Oceania Shopping Mall.
Trainer Nacho Beristain thinks it’s a bad idea for Manny Pacquiao to fight Terence Crawford or Vasyl Lomachenko at this point in his career, according to ESPN Deportes. Beristain says the 39-year-old Pacquiao should think carefully before he makes the decision to fight either of those guys.
Pacquiao looked like his old self last Saturday night in defeating Lucas Matthysse to win the WBA World welterweight title in Malaysia, but he wasn’t facing Crawford or Lomachenko in those fights.
In what seems like a waste of time, WBA super featherweight champion Gervonta ‘Tank’ Davis (20-0, 19 KOs) plans on sparring Golden Boy Promotions prospect Ryan Garcia (15-0, 13 KOs) in order to iron out their differences due to the trash talking he’s been doing on Twitter over the last few months.
In what appeared to be totally scripted, Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller and Anthony Joshua were involved in a heated exchange of trash talking during Tuesday’s news conference with former WBA heavyweight champion Alexander Povetkin looking on in New York.
Miller (21-0-1, 18 KOs) is expected to sign with Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn, who needs content to supply to subscribers for his DAZN streaming service. Hearn says he wants to match Joshua against WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder on April 13, provided Joshua gets past Povetkin, but the fight looks like it won’t be happening.
Eddie Hearn says he’s interested in inking Manny Pacquiao to add him to his DAZN streaming service if he’s a free agent now. Hearn isn’t quite certain or not whether the 39-year-old Pacquiao is no longer with his long time promoters at Top Rank. Hearn is in a race against time to sign enough top name fighters to make his deal with DAZN work financially by year 2.
By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
JUST a win away from returning to the finals of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup, defending champions San Miguel Beermen go for the clincher when they collide with the Alaska Aces in Game Three of their best-of-five semifinal series today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Former welterweight champion Kell Brook (37-2, 26 KOs) has pulled out of his scheduled July 28 fight against junior middleweight contender Brandon Cook (20-1, 14 KOs) on Sky Box Office PPV on the Dillian Whyte vs. Joseph Parker undercard at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Brook vs. Cook was supposed to be the chief support for the Whyte-Parker PPV card. That was a terrible fight for a co-feature bout on a pay-per-view card on Sky Box Office. Hearn says he had hoped to have super middleweight Chris Eubank Jr. fight on the card, but he turned it down.
Unless something changes by Saturday, U.S fans won’t be able to see the World Boxing Super Series finals fight between cruiserweight champions Murat Gassiev (26-0, 19 KOs) and Oleksandr Usyk in Moscow, Russia. According to Dan Rafael, the Gassiev-Usyk fight still doesn’t have an American broadcast outlet that will be showing it to U.S boxing fans.
WBA regular welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse (39-5, 36 KOs) was trying to make sense of his 7th round blowout loss to Manny Pacquiao (60-7-2, 39 KOs) last Saturday night. The fight took place at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Anthony Joshua OBE will defend his WBA Super, IBF, WBO and IBO Heavyweight World titles against WBA mandatory challenger Alexander Povetkin at Wembley Stadium Connected by EE on September 22, live on Sky Sports Box Office.
Former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao (60-7-2, 39 KOs) scored his first knockout in nine years since 2009 in stopping a completely shot looking WBA ‘regular’ welterweight champion Lucas Matthysse (39-5, 36 KOs) in the 7th round on Saturday night to win the World Boxing Association secondary 147 lb. title at the Axiata Arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Prograis vs. Velasco and Lopez vs. Silva will be televised live on ESPN and ESPN Deportes at 7 p.m. ET. The entire undercard will be streamed on ESPN+ beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET.
Promoted by Top Rank, in association with DiBella Entertainment, tickets, priced at $200 (ringside), $125 (floor), $75, and $40, are on sale now, and can be purchased at the Lakefront Arena box office, Ticketmaster.com and charge by phone at 800-745-3000. Discounts for military, students and New Orleans Police Department members ‑ $75 tickets for $50 and $40 seats for $25 – are available when presenting valid ID at the Lakefront Arena box office.
